Judge OKs Ore. Diocese Asset Transfers

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, May 13, 2003

A judge Wednesday allowed a Roman Catholic diocese to transfer assets to its parishes and missions after plaintiffs in a sex abuse lawsuit failed to prove the transfers were illegal.

The judge had previously issued a temporary restraining order at the request of David Slader, a lawyer representing 18 men who said they were abused years ago as children by the Rev. David Hazen, who died in 1986.

Their suit against the Diocese of Baker and Archdiocese of Portland seeks some $69 million. They contended the Baker diocese, in eastern Oregon, was illegally shifting assets to avoid paying potential damages.

Slader said Wednesday that the ruling means the plaintiffs will sue individual parishes, probably within 30 days.

"The real property hasn't gone anywhere, we know where it is," Slader said. "The message we have is that we have no choice but to name each parish as a coconspirator."

Bishop Robert Vasa, the head of the diocese, has indicated he was taking steps toward such transfers well before the suit arose in late 2001. Judge Michael Adler said he had seen nothing to indicate otherwise.

Slader called the transfers an illegal attempt to render the diocese insolvent and unable to pay any damages, but Adler said the plaintiffs failed to show they would be harmed by the financial moves.

Outside the courtroom, Vasa said the ruling was a relief. He said he would transfer title to the newly incorporated parishes once it was clear there would not be an appeal or other impediment.

"All we sought is to establish a civil and corporate equity between canon law _ church law _ and civil law," Vasa said. "The diocese never claimed to be personally owning that property."